Research On The Female Characters In Xu Jinglei Films

With the booming development of Chinese film and the improvement of women’s social status, Xu Jinglei, Li Yu, Ma Liwen andother female directors who were born in the70’s stand outconspicuously in the moviedom. Xu Jinglei, by virtue of her uniquetalent, has completed the turn from an actor to a director. In thefive films which are directed and starred by herself, Xu Jinglei, throughher woman’s gender advantage, With the view of caring for women,reviews the gender relations in society and calls on Women shouldhave independent feminist consciousness. She put the camera onwomen of different ages, in different periods and differrent levels inordinary life, showing us the female thoughts and great changes offemale self consciousness in the new era. One by one bright andunconventional female image has become an important part of XuJinglei’s movie. Xiaoyu who gains growth, the strange woman whois drown in love, the actress who struggles between dream andreality, Du Lala and Amy who face the contradictions in workplaceand emotion, these female images of unique personality in screen isthe reproduction of the real life of different women in reality,therefore the films have caused great echoes in the audience aftertheir broadcast. It also makes Xu Jinglei become the first female director whose ticketsales exceed100million.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is anintroduction, this section consists mainly of personal introductionof Xu Jinglei and relevant information of Xu jinglei collected by theauthor. It summarizes current research of Xu jinglei’s movies in theacademic community and the film and television industry, analyzesthe significance and feasibility of this paper.The second chapter discusses feminist theory and the relationshipbetween feminist and Chinese movies, from which we can see theimprovement of women’s self consciousness in recent years andthe impact of women thought on films.The third and fourth chapter, on the basis of this theory, dividethe female characters in Xu Jinglei’s films into different specifictypes. Through comparative studies, based on the narrative theme ofgrowth, the characters can be divided into growing girls and powerfulwomen. Growing girls are interpreted as the images of girls growingup in life, girls growing up in emotions, and women reflecting aftergrowing up. Powerful women are analyzed in the aspects of workplaceand emotion. So we can comprehensively understand the femaleimages in Xu Jinglei’s films in multiple perspectives.The fifth chapter synthesizes Xu Jinglei’s five films and sorts outthe images of girls with different characters and progressivethoughts from a macro perspective. Meanwhile, we should also seethe deficiency behind female images---the existence of malechauvinism. This section explains the existence of male chauvinismin the perspective of Electra complex, behavior characterizationand appearance characterization, and analyzes the cause of its existence from the view of tradition, society and the commercialoperation. It aims at real gender equality.The sixth chapter, based on the above analysis, interpretates theuniqueness of Xu Jinglei’s films in the aspect of narrative theme andfemale narrator etc. in the female perspective. In short, thisthesis seeks to break the former analysis of individual case in herfilm. It sorts out the female images in her five films comprehensively,and understands women in multiple views. Behind every distinctivefemale character, we would like to see the obstacle that women meetwhen they try to cry out their voice, that is the existence of malechauvinism. The paper analyzes the forms and causes of malechauvinism, so that the public can examine the relation betweenthe sexes correctly, and realize the real gender equality.